WE didn’t think it could be done, but we actually “Broke” Spring. The money it took to send these five reporters down to Key West has drained our operating budget into the red. They have been ordered to freeze all credit card purchases (except gas) and return home. By studying a sample of average daily expenses you can see why this happened

TOTAL $4009$4009 a day to send “reporters” down to cover the festivities, not very smart use of capital. It would have been twice that much (or more) if the senior executives at GroovyLand Enterprises would have been allowed to accompany them, but our wives wouldn’t let us. Here is their report...

omg lol brb bff

Back To Earth Andy

WARM UP WITH MIKE

Last week I stopped by my new favorite public house - rain dogs. in 5-points. I was there to speak with one of the owners... Christina Wagner - 5-Points local Treasure of the Month” winner. It was her night off however, so it looked like a Guinness and a pleasant walk home was in my future.

My friend Jim Web came up to the bar and we started talking; Jim used to own Fuel Coffee house a 5-p0ints institution. Nice Guy. He was there to see the band that was playing that night - Bread and Circus (think ancient Rome); They are friends of his. One of the guys in the Band, Keith, walked up and started talking with Jim saying how they didn’t have a drummer, but that didn’t matter, they were going to do it anyway- have fun - a good attitude. I , of course, was eavesdropping and when I heard the word “need” I chimed right in “I have a snare at home it you can give me a ride to my house I’ll be your drummer for the night.

NOTE: I can play drums, but I am not a drummer. Any ability I might have I have received mainly by osmosis. I’ve always wanted to learn to play a drum kit well, but had trouble getting off the ground, like I am now with the violin. I could fall into the pocket on bass instantly, but had trouble with the drums - until I finally did fall into the pocket - The reason I couldn’t do it before was that I never had done it before. Many things in life are like that - until you have that first AHA! moment you endure many hours of HUH?

I’LL TAKE THAT OFFICE JOB NOW

Back to the bar...I asked Keith what kind of music they played and he said mainly originals - he had me there. I needed to ask no more questions. This is important....

I WOULD RATHER PLAY WITH AN ORIGINAL BAND THAT SUCKS THAN WITH A COVER BAND POLISHED LIKE A DIAMOND.

No quiet walk home for me tonight, I had a job to do! We went to my house and picked up my snare, sticks and the like went back to the club The band had a kick drum so I had a kit sans cymbals. rain dogs has a small back room where musical acts play and the host a comedy open mike night (which I do a set at every Monday night, until they tell me to stop) probably room for 75 people, standing. We started playing and although they have a ways to go - they didn’t suck, and they are on the right track. As far as my drumming goes I give myself a C+. I still have a ways to go, but I’m on the right track. You wouldn’t think to look at them, but there is a lot going on in a drummers brain while playing, each foot playing a different note, each hand playing a different note. Not the instrument you would think a pwp (person with parkinsons) would choose to play. That’s why I do it. I fell into a pocket several times during the night, so what I see now in my future is my drum kit being put back together.

I’LL SHOW YOU THE EXITS

During the night I kept hearing my name being called. It sounded like someone who knew me - after the show, my friend Jennifer Chase’s daughter Chelsea, along with her boyfriend Joe, lead singer for the Antique Animals, came up to the stage. They had friends in the band and had come to see them perform, they were quite surprised to see me playing. I have known Chelsea since she was 3 and has grown up to be a wonderful, smart and hard working woman. She just started a job with Delta as a flight attendant. Congrats Chel. I say all this not only because it was good to see them - it gives me an excuse to put this beautiful smiling picture of her up here. Chelsea, let me know if any of those drunk frequent flyers bothers you and I’ll tell your boyfriend, he’ll take care of them. That is, after all, what boyfriends do.

No April Fools Jokes

Today is April Fools Day, a pseudo holiday I don’t really count as real - it’s halloween without a press agent. So, don’t look for any gags from me. But you can look for some changes to the whole AndyLand Groovyverse -

Letters from AndyLand will now only be published once a week on Fridays (Quality over Quantity) Plus, I need more time for my other creative pursuits - I will post daily mini blogs for the next week as an experiment - if they work for me they will become a feature, but the main blog will only be published on Friday.

More items of local interest, and by local I mean Riverside, Florida. I love my neighborhood and the people who live there - it is a major part of who I am.

Monday night will be the live version of the blog performed at rain-dogs in 5-points It will be recorded and put up Tuesday morning as a pod cast. This will be an uncensored R rated version

Last night I did my 3rd Hot Potato Comedy Set, and I hate to say it ... I was really bad ... I can honestly say, I sucked. Too bad , it was the best crowd I had seen, with a lot of comics from Gainesville making the drive up. I did lots of things wrong - I got there late - forgot my standing stick - thought I was going to go last but went 3rd - meds hadn’t started working yet.... bla bla bla. Everyone was real supportive, however, with a lot of “You can do it man” being yelled from the audience. The local cadre of comics were even more helpful telling me I wasn’t that bad and how they like my style and this is all a learning experience etc. Thanks Guys.

Things have a way of organically woking themselves out and while I was brushing my teeth getting ready for bed last night I had an epiphany - almost a vision, the details of this will be revealed as they are shown to me. Here’s a start...

MONDAY MONDAYYesterday was one of those valley days as far as mood goes. I could never shake the Pig-Pen cloud of grey dirt hovering around me. Everything was distorted and colorless. Those days - those days when I want to give up - stop writing, stop composing music, are the days when I have to work even harder. I know I announced I’m cutting back to once a week blog-0-matic delivery. but this will give me time to focus on my Novel, so I will be writing more that ever - just not sharing - not until it’s finished.

Back to last nights Open-Mic comedy night. Did I mention I sucked? I did, and I meant to. It was an exercise in bombing on stage I purposely arranged with myself in order to prepare for if it ever ACTUALLY happens. At least that will be my story next Monday. The ironic part is the prior two times I had performed I did so with no advance thought or preparation, just talked about the first thing that popped into my mind. Like I write this blog. Yesterday I wrote down and polished what I was gonna say - placing a beginning joke- planting a seed for the punch line at the end - waste of my time - I didn’t use any of it anyway. No more Jokes, No more puchlines - Just the live 5 min Adult version of “Letters from GroovyLand”

The trick is to allow my brain to think the way it does when I write up on that stage. Also I want to deal with matters of importance to help make the world a better place, if only my little part - a neo-beat voice in the wilderness. I have no plans of ever becoming a professional comic, but being known as the Lenny Bruce of 5-points wouldn’t be too bad - not too bad at all, and it defiantly wouldn’t suck. I think I have found something - I have the WHAT - I’m practicing the HOW - soon it will be time for the WHY NOT!

AWK.
I often enjoy your authorship. As somebody once said, "Comedy is not pretty". Peace.

Fred

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just say yes!

meet Andy Ward King, a professional musician and artist until a diagnosis of parkinons dsease at age 49 forced him into an early retirement., he now uses his music, his art along with the whimsical world he has created in this blog as therapy to ( as he puts it ) outsmart his brain and make the daily battles with parkinson’s a little bit easier, to give him that all important reason to get up on the morning, to make his life worth living. Andy has learned how to say NO to gving up \ NO to depression and apathy \ NO to following willingly the road of decline that stretches before him. he learned that to say no to all of these things all one has to do is say yes. Andy has learned to just say YES to life/\\